1. Field
Aspects of the present disclosure relate generally to wireless communication systems, and more particularly, to prioritizing non-scheduled data in a wireless communications network.
2. Background
Wireless communication networks are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, broadcasts, and so on. Such networks, which are usually multiple access networks, support communications for multiple users by sharing the available network resources. One example of such a network is the UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN). The UTRAN is the radio access network (RAN) defined as a part of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), a third generation (3G) mobile phone technology supported by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). UMTS, which is the successor to Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) technologies, currently supports various air interface standards, such as Wideband-Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA), Time Division-Code Division Multiple Access (TD-CDMA), and Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA). UMTS also supports enhanced 3G data communications protocols, such as High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), which provides higher data transfer speeds and capacity to associated UMTS networks.
As the demand for mobile broadband access continues to increase, research and development continue to advance the UMTS technologies not only to meet the growing demand for mobile broadband access, but to advance and enhance the user experience with mobile communications.
As an example, in Release 9 of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) family of specifications (or standards), “pre-allocation” of power to non-scheduled (NS) data on a primary cell (or carrier or frequency) was introduced for Dual Cell-High Speed Uplink Packet Access (DC-HSUPA). More particularly, according to the 3GPP Medium Access Control (MAC) technical specification (TS) 25.321, entitled “Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol specification”, which is publicly available, for DC-HSUPA when there is more than one Activated Uplink Frequency available, a certain amount of power is pre-allocated for non-empty non-scheduled MAC-d flows. However, the description of the pre-allocation scheme is ambiguous and different interpretations result in different behavior at a user equipment (UE). Because of this ambiguity, it is possible that non-scheduled, but high priority data, such as, for example, signaling radio bearer (SRB) data, may not be transmitted by a UE in a timely fashion resulting in undesirable call drops.
As such, improvements in prioritizing non-scheduled data in a wireless communications network are desired.